Brother Gary Sunday Evening 8/3/14

Brother Gary Sunday Evening 8/3/14

It is wonderful to hunger and thirst for the good things of God.  Only God can give that and only God can keep that alive.  The thought tonight is having our senses exercised to discern both good and evil. 

There is a wonderful truth in having a hunger for God to go on to perfection, to not stay where we are. 

There is a definite season ordained of God to be a babe in Christ.  It is nothing to be ashamed of.  We all must be there.  The goal of this lesson tonight is to encourage and make us as His church hungrier for God and hungrier for depth.

Heb 5:1  For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:

Heb 5:2  Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.

God help us to be a spiritual priest that has compassion on men and women that are ignorant of spiritual things.  And help me to not have disgust toward people that are out of the way.  It is better to pray and seek God and have a door of utterance that you might help people that are in disgusting situations.

Heb 5:3  And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.

Heb 5:4  And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.

Heb 5:5  So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.

Heb 5:6  As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

Heb 5:8  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

Heb 5:9  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

Heb 5:10  Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.

Heb 5:11  Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

It is very real tonight.  Not maybe among this audience but it is very real tonight that through the Gospel Day there has been the sad condition over and over again of men and women becoming dull of hearing. 

My thought is, “What causes there to be a dullness of hearing?”  I open the invitation for you to exhort. 

I believe becoming dull of hearing is a result of people failing to go on to sanctification.  They allow themselves to be distracted by whatever it is and soon the desire for genuineness that Sister Ruth made last Sunday is gone.

I believe that everyone here experienced in their early days of bible salvation, “I want to be real and I want Jesus to be real in my life more than anything else.  I want to be in the fire and have the dross removed and there to be a realness and a purity within my soul.” 

There is something about realness that our senses recognize.  All of you have been to school.  The children may have only had a few teachers in school and some maybe haven’t been to school yet, but most students recognize when they have a teacher that is really a teacher. 

Children recognize really fast if they are loved and cared for.  They recognize if they are not liked as much as another child in the family. 

So it is with you and me when we get saved.  We have this hunger to be right with God.

Heb 2:1  Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

May God help this audience tonight to recognize, “Those things that God has spoken to me about: it is vital that I give the more earnest heed to them.” 

Those that have spent some years around the church and around those that departed from the faith have come across those that at one time really believed in bible salvation and sanctification and then you meet them again and you realize that they have let them slip. 

At one time they were on fire for God.  As the years developed and the apostasy came to the movement they become affected by it and when asked about the truths that they at one time stood for say, “I have learned a better way.”

The way of the apostate is not a better way.  It does not lead to better fields, a better life, or a better testimony. 

You have the same senses that I have.  Paul wrote to the Hebrews.  “You have become dull of hearing.”  It is vital that you and I give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard lest at anytime we should let them slip.

Heb 3:1  Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

Heb 3:2  Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.

Heb 3:3  For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.

Heb 3:4  For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.

We are instructed here, “Consider Jesus Christ and remember His prophecy.”

Isa 50:4  The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

Don’t let anything mess up your hearing.

Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

You and I have been so blessed to taste and to hear.  We have been so blessed to smell the sacrifice of total surrender to God.  Jesus was such a sacrifice.  It is a sweet smelling savor to God. 

You and I remember well that season of making that total sacrifice to God.  “God I want you to be so well pleased with me that we sense that sweet smell come up from the altar and our total sacrifice to Him.”

We have tasted, we have smelled that sweet smelling savor of Christ.  That sweet smelling savor of a total sacrifice to Him, and then we have found the sensation of knowing, “God I am a living sacrifice.”

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

We will this week probably have the opportunity of having plans and having God change your plans.  I make notes the night before of things I’d like to do the next day.  They are subject to God.  “God I want you to have your way.”

We wanted to help Bob and Patty.  Many of you know them.  I knew that I had to handle it right or the door would not only close but also be locked if I handled it wrong.  I needed to go by their place and find the boundaries that they would draw for us.  Some people don’t want your help.  You cannot help people that don’t want your help. 

I took the catalogue from L.L. Bean and put it in my pocket.  I went up the steps and knocked on the door.  I wish you could have seen the house; it has ramps for a wheel chair.  A voice said, “Come in Mr. Kelly.”  I went in and saw a lady washing the dishes in a wheel chair. 

I said, “Patty I want you to draw some lines where they are.  I have received some money from someone and I want to buy school shoes for your children, will you let us?”  She said, “Oh Mr. Kelly, that would be so nice.”  She wheeled her wheel chair to find sizes and called me to come help her get them.  They were so worn out that you couldn’t even find sizes. 

I say this to say that it doesn’t matter if God calls you to make a phone call, write a letter, it doesn’t have to do with money, it is “God I want to be a living sacrifice for you.”  There is a sweet smell to a sacrifice.  “Holy, Holy, Holy.”

I almost fainted last week when a man told me that he didn’t think that God cared how he lived.  Sin has affected him.  He didn’t think that God cared about anything.  God does. 

When I spoke to him that by faith we could be delivered from the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, he looked at me and said, “Where did that come from?”  The bible.

Acceptable to God:  It is a witness.  We are not much on feeling around here.  We have all lived on feelings.  We have hit enough black ice and had a lot of feelings. 

We have had that witness.  We have lived for God and known, “This is the will of God.”  We know that we are in the labor room, not the delivery room all the time, but we are in the labor room.

Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

It doesn’t matter how others are living, the bible says, “Be not.”

Isa 32:17  And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

Peace is not a feeling, it is a witness.  The work of righteousness is peace.  Help us to not be dull of hearing but be challenged in God’s work.

The work of righteousness is peace and the affect quietness and assurance.

Miriam stood by the river as quiet as she could be and at the right time made her move. 

Standing firm.  Quietness and assurance.  I am not sure that assurance is a feeling; I believe that it is a witness.  It is a witness, assurance that God is in control.